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Rice cake

Injeolmi 인절미

Injeolmi is rice cake made with sweet rice (glutinous rice). It’s one of the most popular and common Korean rice cakes and it’s made on special occasions and Festival days. The rice cake is chewy and sticky, so traditionally it was given to newly wedded couples to wish that they get along and ‘stick together’ forever. The bride’s mother also makes this rice cake for the groom’s family in the hopes that her daughter will get along with the  groom’s family.

When the newly wedded couple share the rice cake, they say, “let’s stick to each other forever, just like this injeolmi” : )

Traditionally it’s made with a mortar and pestle. Soaked sweet rice is steamed and pounded until all the cooked rice grains are mashed. Then it’s  coated in roasted soy bean powder or other things like black sesame seed powder, mashed red beans, chopped pine nuts, chestnuts, and jujubes.

It’s most commonly made with soybean powder; yes, I mean roasted soybean powder, or konggaru (kong means beans and garu means powder).

I remember my grandmother used to make injeolmi at home and usually all adult family members (especially male members) helped.

“Ok, let me help you!”

“It’s my turn, take a rest!”

I was always excited to see them making rice cake, and so happy when I ate the freshly made rice cake, coated with lots of delicious soybean powder.These days almost everybody buys or orders injeolmi from a rice cake store rather than making it at home with a mortar and pestle.

I’ve often been told by my readers that they cook together with their children. I think cooking together with your mom is fun and a great experience. Children will keep those good memories in their hearts forever.

I used to make my own injeolmi without pounding, but the taste always lacked something. It wasn’t chewy enough and I didn’t like the taste at all. So a few years ago when I lived in Canada, I did an experiment to make this rice cake by pounding, like I saw my grandmothers in Korea do it. It turned out so delicious! I took my injeolmi to work and shared it with my coworkers, and they said it was awesome.

Instead of sweet rice, I use sweet rice flour, cook it in a microwave oven, and pound the dough with my small mortar and pestle. It works perfectly! What makes this rice cake perfect is that it’s super chewy just like my grandmother’s homemade injeolmi!

Enjoy the recipe!

Ingredients

Sweet rice flour (glutinous rice flour), kosher salt, sugar, roasted soybean powder (and mugwort powder for ssuk injeolmi)

Directions

  1. Place 1 cup of sweet rice flour, ¼ ts kosher salt, 1 tbs sugar, and ¾ cup of water in a microwavable bowl. Mix it well to make rice cake dough.
  2. Cover it with Saran wrap, and cook it in a microwave oven for 3 minutes.
  3. Mix the hot dough with a wooden spoon for about 20 seconds. Put the Saran wrap back on and cook 1 more minute in the microwave.



  4. Transfer the rice cake dough into a mortar and pound it for about 1 minute (pound 50 times). You’ll make bubbles and then hear the bubbles popping out while you pound, which mean the consistency of the rice cake is just right: chewy and elastic.
    *tip: Put a little cold water on your hands when you want to touch the dough so that it won’t stick to your fingers and will keep you from burning yourself.
  5. Spread ½ cup roasted soybean powder on a cutting board and place your pounded rice cake in the powder. Roll it around a bit to cover it with a light dusting of powder.
  6. Cut into bite size pieces.
  7. Coat each piece of the rice cake with the roasted soy bean powder and transfer to a serving plate.

Sprinkle with  sugar when you serve.

Ssuk injeolmi

Same directions as above, and add 1 tbs ssukgaru (mugwort powder) and 1 tbs water to the dough water you mix it.




Posted on Monday, August 15th, 2011 at 1:36 pm. Last updated on July 29, 2021.
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86 Comments:

  1. eunjo319 ann arbor, mi joined 9/18 & has 1 comment
    Posted September 15th, 2018 at 2:55 pm | or create a profile.

    Hi :) Wondering if I can use mochiko instead of traditional korean 찹쌀가루~ thank you!

  2. sunflowii Canada joined 3/18 & has 3 comments
    Posted July 16th, 2018 at 7:08 am | or create a profile.

    Hi Maangchi!
    You make everything look so easy! And I love your portion sizes – they’re just right, especially for this recipe. When I found the same plastic mortar and pestle at a large Galleria Korean supermarket in York Mills (Toronto), I squealed!
    I used 1 cup sweet rice flour and 3/4 cup water but after I mixed it, it was more like a liquid than a dough. Is it because I used a different brand of sweet rice flour? I tried to fix it by adding more rice flour but of course it didn’t turn out right either. please help! I love injeolmi and look forward to making it with green tea powder too.


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  3. Min_MNF MALAYSIA joined 11/17 & has 2 comments
    Posted February 17th, 2018 at 10:19 pm | or create a profile.

    Hi Maangchi,
    Really want to make this iljeolmi but I couldn’t find Roasted Soybean Powder here in my hometown. Can i change it to other powder? Thank you.

  4. deedee Canada joined 8/17 & has 1 comment
    Posted August 27th, 2017 at 12:23 pm | or create a profile.

    Hi!

    How long can they stay fresh for (before they get hard)? I want to make them and give them to someone, so I want to know if I can make them beforehand.

    • Maangchi New York City joined 8/08 & has 12,047 comments
      Posted August 31st, 2017 at 9:58 am | or create a profile.

      They will be ok for several hours at room temperature. I suggest you give the gift right away, or freeze right after making, and then thaw out just before giving them in a gift box. But freshly made is the best.

  5. Omsin Salamanca, Spain joined 7/16 & has 7 comments
    Posted February 1st, 2017 at 5:29 am | or create a profile.

    Hi!

    I made some injeolmis yesterday using yesterday and they came out very good, nutty, chewy and not overly sweet. Since they don’t sell sukgaru here, I made the green ones with matcha powder and the result was great. I gave some to my Korean friend, too, and she sent me a message saying “This is the taste of Korea!”. She really appreciate it. As we all know, when living abroad, being able to get the taste of home is the best!

    Thanks a lot for your hard work.


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  6. Mi Heui Iran - Tehran joined 5/16 & has 18 comments
    Posted September 4th, 2016 at 6:14 am | or create a profile.

    Hi Maangchi
    Now i make injolme ^^
    I couldn’t found sweet rice flour but just finally found sweet rice and like Maangchi home made rice flour, make sweet rice flour and after that because my flour is a little wet just use half cup water and put in my electric steam for 30 minute and put in my mortar and pound kong kong kong ㅋㅋㅋㅋ and it’s soo good but i have use 1Tb spoon sugar like your recipe but injolmi havent sweet. injolme how mach is sweet? because of i made sweet rice flour i should use more sugar?
    i found how work with my electric steam for make rice cake. last time i put bowl in my electric steam but rice cake be dried and bad but this time Cover bowl with Saran wrap and make good rice cake. really like a marshmalo ^^
    and couldn’t found soybean powder and used coconut powder ^^


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  7. elisez singapore joined 3/16 & has 1 comment
    Posted March 13th, 2016 at 3:31 am | or create a profile.

    what if there’s no microwave? can i use steaming method?

  8. annoodle joined 6/15 & has 1 comment
    Posted June 12th, 2015 at 4:45 pm | or create a profile.

    If I doubled the portions, would the time of cooking the dough in the microwave, take longer? or can I keep it about the same time?

  9. kimleeya Malaysia joined 3/15 & has 2 comments
    Posted March 6th, 2015 at 7:16 am | or create a profile.

    Hi Maangchi! I somehow found your website last few days while searching for injeolmi’s recipe and i just made it today. The taste was fantastic! Since I was craving for it since long ago.

    But I used cocoa powder mixed with icing sugar (to lessen the bitter taste of cocoa powder) for the coating and it was a good choice!

    I have one question to you though… How long can it last if I keep the injeolmi in room temperature? Or should I keep it in refrigerator? Thank youuuu

    • Maangchi New York City joined 8/08 & has 12,047 comments
      Posted March 6th, 2015 at 7:56 am | or create a profile.

      Freshly made injeolmi will be ok at room temperature up to 7 to 8 hours. I usually keep the leftover injeolmi in the freezer instead of the refrigerator, then thaw it out when I want to eat it. The rice cake will get soft and chewy. You can also reheat it in the microwave.

  10. 0ni & has 2 comments
    Posted February 19th, 2015 at 6:31 pm | or create a profile.

    hi ^^
    i, like more than a few other poor souls, accidentally got 찹쌀가루 instead of 멥쌀가루 and i’m a night owl, so i didn’t realize until i was preparing homemade 떡 for 떡국 for the first time last night. thankfully your recommendation to make 인절미 to someone on your page for making 가래떡 saved me from throwing out over a pound of dough. it was late at night and all shops close early here in Austria, so instead of soy bean and mugwort powder, i dusted the sliced cakes with cinnamon-sugar, cocoa-sugar, and green tea powder-sugar. they taste nice! a friend of mine said 인절미 can also be made like a pancake, i hope to see a recipe for that style 인절미 some day. thank you!

  11. KatrinG Poland joined 1/15 & has 1 comment
    Posted January 15th, 2015 at 12:59 pm | or create a profile.

    Maangchi, thank’s for the recipe! :) I’ve just made delicious rice cakes. I’ve coated my rice cake in blended, black sesame seeds. It’s super chewy and yummy with sesame flavour! :)

  12. Morgan York PA joined 9/14 & has 1 comment
    Posted September 4th, 2014 at 4:07 pm | or create a profile.

    I just made this recipe and it turned out amazing! This treat I was missing and now I can make it myself.

  13. natoo australia joined 8/14 & has 1 comment
    Posted August 16th, 2014 at 8:52 am | or create a profile.

    hello manchi. i have recently been watching your videos and i really want to make this injeolmi. i have failed more than 5 times. im using the normal rice flour it didnt work. and then few times i tried with japanese rice flour but it is not sweet so i use your measurements but added extra sugar. and i dont know why after mixing the ingredients its all so runny? and when i put in microwave it turn out cookd solid and stuck. :( help me !!
    is it the flour problem or too much water? im confused

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